Monday, December 13, 2010

Definitely Not Reviews (Dec 1 + 8, 2010)

Had such a paltry week on December 1st (two floppies and a trade) that I decided to skip DNR last week... also I was travelling and Christmas shopping followed by catching up with gobs of work I'd been avoiding so I was otherwise preoccupied anyway. So with two weeks to catch up on...

Doom Patrol #17 - What was this all about again... oh, right, this was a weird one (which means it's a normal one for Doom Patrol). To compare it to TV series, it's kind of like Fringe by way of Human Target at the Doom Patrol go to a soiree loaded with criminal element types as bodyguard for the President of Oolong Island. Bad stuff happens... and Bumblebee can't find fancy attire.

Secret Six #28 - a muddled issue trying to resolve a far-too-complex situation far too quickly. Also, it had that conceit which annoys the living poop out of me whereby people (from opposing sides) stop and have a chat on the battlefied, and nobody else even attempts to take them out (and that happens here multiple times... gargalarg!)

The Incredible Hercules: The New Prince Of Power tpb - Combining two mini-series, "Hercules: Fall of an Avenger" (Spoiler Alert: Hercules is dead!), wherein a buch of heroes eulogize Herc (I find it hard to believe that an Altlantean princess would refer to anyone as "hot" though) followed by "Heroic Age: The New Price Of Power" (Spoiler Alert: It's Amadeus Cho), where in Amadeus Cho (notice how he's usually only referred to by his full name... some people are like that... mostly athletes though) takes over as CEO of Olympus Corp (or whatever it's called) and must deal with his first hostile takeover, all while actually trying to become a god so that he can find out where Hercules really is (Spoiler Alert: Herc's not really dead). This is a frustrating trade as it's all just a lead-in to the Chaos War event. (Remember the Adam Strange/ OMAC/ Rann-Thanagar War/ Secret Six etc mini-series that didn't have endings but only led into Infinite Crisis, it's just that annoying.. not bad otherwise).

Batgirl #16 - Batgirl's been framed for murder! Hardly original, but it's like pulling a cd off the shelf that you haven't listened to in 15 years... it's so familar, but time has made it sort of unfamiliar as well and yet kind of comforting.

Booster Gold #39 - Booster finally grieves over the loss of Ted Kord. It's sweet but Chris Batista's art has either gone way downhill or he's in need of a new inker, because this book is looking terrible (and really, after all the jokes, I still can't see Booster's bald spot).

Justice League:Generation Lost #15 - Like: Captain Atom time jumping, Booster Gold taking charge, Rocket Red and his tenuous grasp of English turns-of-phrase, Blue Beetle because he wicked awesome, Max Lord's aggrivated acknowledgment of the Wonder Woman reboot. Dislike: Ice and her new retcon which I guess is supposed to toughen her up, but, y'know, being a sweet, timid, pacifist superhero was really her appeal. It's basically lazy writing to completely reboot her character to explain her new personality rather than just develop her as a character. Winick you frustrate me so.

Red Robin #18 - Tim is in Russia, encountering an old Titans ally Red Star, who has been changed in recent years and has an alien spaceship sidekick (an actual inhabitable one, not like Skeets). Fabian Nicieza acknowledges how much of Russia's post-Communist development/prosperity has been a result of corruption and criminal underground, which depending on your level of familiarity with Russia may play as insightful or insulting. I'm not sure which, but it's a somewhat different story for Red Robin so far and I like it.

Superboy #2 - Y'know, I like this book, but I don't love it. In the same way I like old Silver Age comics, but I find them also incredibly difficult to take seriously. Superboy has a very Silver Age feel, and it demands an almost total shift of modern-reader mentality to not balk or dismiss it, because when you succumb to it, it's damn entertaining in that ridiculously goofy way Silver Age comics were. Remote control Parasite frogs indeed.

THUNDER Agents #2 - This was a very well-written character piece, but as much as I liked it (even at $3.99) I'm almost worried that the THUNDER Agents aren't going to have much in the way of story and instead be almost solely character focused... it's almost as if JMS were behind it.